LOVE OVERBOARD

PART TWO

(LOVE OVERBOARD)

I returned back to my parents filled with joy after assimilating into the agnostic experience in high school. I kept my secret within myself. I held onto unveiling all what had happened in the high school to anyone not even my dad. I fell in love with my family once again but at this time I was self-conscious about the fact that I wasn't an ordinary person. Once again I felt relieved to enjoy every moment with my home as we happily watched movies together in the parlor, the fresh love of my parents reversing itself back into my life and I never wished it should die off even for a second. But the time for my entrance exams into the higher institution was fast approaching, I needed to feel the love as much as I could before departing again. Who knows that might be forever.

A couple of days before my entrance exams, I was in my dad's room searching for my elementary school testimonial after a thorough search in my room. My dad was away and of course I was the only child granted an access to my father's room at any time. He has a separate file for all his five children where everyone's documents were properly kept and secured. I picked out my file for a search but I was unlucky to find the testimonial in it. I remembered he once gave it to me when I was resuming JSS1 and I doubted if I returned it back to him. I began a thorough searching in his room, scattered everything and put them back in place.

After all failed effort to see the document I stood confused, my hands around my waist. Raising up my head I sighted his old silver color briefcase hung with a nail at the left hand corner of the room. I smiled confidently as if I was sure that what I was in search of was surely in the case. I lifted myself and had the bag in my hand. It was filled with his old documents, the old times brown note books and brown papers. I was discouraged of what I was searching for at first, but nonetheless I continued with a minimum assurance. Just then I came across his diary in the middle of the books. I flung the diary carelessly on the floor to continue my search.

"Yes I found it" I was lucky.

Parking in the books and arranging the papers in order, I picked the diary and a picture fell off from it. I wiped my face twice to be sure of who was in the picture.

"Is this me" I asked myself. "No! No! No! This isn't me, I don't think I have ever taken such shot before". I was a complete auto copy far from photocopy of the woman in the picture. Our distinction was the face maturity. Who could this be? I kept the picture aside and had the other books and papers arranged back. I can't wait for my dad to return, the journey of a day seems to be like a year in my eyes.

"How dare you tampered with my briefcase" my dad roared at me for the first time in my life, his face took an immediate change and his eyes burning.

"How do you get to the picture?" he snapped.

"Dad why are you acting this way? I only wanted to know who this woman is" I said at the verge of losing my temper.

He squeezed the picture off my hand "Don't ever dare to go close to that briefcase again" he cautioned. "Understand?"

"Yes sir" I replied pushing backward to avoid his face colliding with mine.

He breezily moved passed me in anger, he was almost unseen to me. "What have I done wrong?" I asked myself. At that point I knew I have crossed the line without crossing the line. For the first time in my life I heard my dad cry. He sat at the edge of the steps at the back of the house where he could hide himself. He wept bitterly squeezing the picture in his hand. When he noticed someone's presence, he wiped his tears and walked back to his room. Yes of course I caught him crying despite his denial, his swollen and reddish eyes can be of a good evidence even in the court of law.

As my eyes became four with his, he placed a hand on my shoulder, hiding the picture behind with the other hand. "Am sorry for speaking to you in such manner" he apologized calmly.

"Am also sorry for having the line crossed without your consent" I said as I pushed forward to have myself folded into his opened arms.

My first semester in the university was quite dull and filled with annoying men. They all wanted to have my ass in bed. In all ramifications I really wanted to focus. My first relationship with a man ended me nothing but a rape and ever since then I developed a secret hatred for men. Though I might appear to talk to them freely but beyond that, I built a wall rather than a bridge between us.

I've highly improved in my academic performance, anyway this happened right from the high school with the help of my friend Omoyeni. She had many ways and tricks of getting things into my dull brain. And now that am alone carrying my cross without her, I needed to do away with many things that might get me off focused. Most especially men.

Focus aside, I never wanted anyone to come my way. The environment was fresh and hospitable to me. It would be frustrating for my secret of who I am to be revealed at that early stage. I wanted myself to be protected, my secret under veil. But can it be unveiled forever? This I don't think so, but no matter what happens I would try to make it possible not to reveal. I confirmed in myself. All I needed was to avoid people walking in the walking accident zone.

Prof. Tundu, a bald headed man with a pot belly that seemed to pick the shape of the late 1960s television set. He was known with the word Use what you have to get your needs. I was invited to his office one ungodly Friday afternoon just after the 12 o'clock lectures. He motioned for me to sit on the empty cushion chair right in front of his table.

"You know I believe in using what I have to have in custody of what I want" he began "And I hope you should also have such beliefs"

"I don't understand" I said.

"You know you are a pretty lady. You don't need to have yourself stressed up to make your papers. With me you will be cool"

I've already gotten the knowledge of where the conversation was heading to but I pretended to be an amateur. "I don't understand" I remarked.

"Common" he said as he stood to his feet and started walking around the table. "With all this things you are blessed with, you will be saved with me".

A little silence swept off the office, my eyes fixed into his brownish eye balls then he broke the gaze.

"I hope you understand me now. Offer me this and you will be out of any problem in this institution". He said attempting to touch my breasts. Before his hand could touch my breasts I swept them off in the air with a hard hit.

"What are you trying to do sir?" I yelled at him.

"You are not a kid. I think you should know better, or, maybe I took it in a rush, but trust me it wasn't my fault. You are a temptation to me. You have become a temptation to this ever since I set my eyes on you" he muttered, pointing his finger to his erected manhood.

"You have given me sleepless nights, particularly this" he mumbled pointing to his erected manhood again and began moving closer to me. "Just once I promise. Once! And that would be all".

"Am sorry I can't" I said as I gripped my bag and walked out of his office.

Just like Prof. Tundu, other lecturers also made their attempts in having me on their beds. The semester was indeed frustrating with lots of infidel men and boys. Though I became a competitive premed student trying to stand out in a department from which about twenty students are being withdrawn every semester while only sixty are hopefully to be graduated every year.

During the holidays, I spent time in my dad's room searching for the picture but I was unfortunate because he had changed the position. Shortly thereafter, I returned back to school.

I started noticing Gabriel one day when I presented an assignment with my group members in front of the class. A few people chuckled as we hand waved our way out through the Eradication of Sickle Cell Anemia that was central to our presentation.

Gabriel looked nervously at me as I scribbled on the marker board, my hand stained with the green ink. He was one of the smartest and intelligent student in the class. Should I say the most intelligent? No. Let me not exaggerate. But he was a guy with a very high rate of intelligence. By the way I cared not of what he thought with his nervous look.

"Do you do that alone? I mean got all the information alone or with the help of your group members?" a voice asked behind me as I sat back against a concrete pillar at the end of the presentation. I turned round to know whose voice was it and was surprised to see Gabriel standing behind me with his both hands in his pockets. He hadn't spoke to me before.

"I love getting information myself, especially when it gets to do with a presentation" I replied rudely as he sits beside me.

"Why was he asking? Was our presentation been that bad?" I questioned myself.

"That was excellent. It was the best presentation I've ever seen" Gabriel said, peering into my face.

"Hmmmmn, am blushing already. But I thought our best was yet to be enough"

"In that case, that means you must be founder of theory to think that there is other better ways or words that suits your presentation better than those words of yours" he teased.

"Well if you say so I have no objection" I shrugged my shoulders in acceptance blinking my left eyes at him.

He nodded and I wondered what the nodding was meant for. "Was he just realizing that I am smart too? Or does he think I'm going to compete with him in class?" I thought. All I knew was that I have no time for competition. My brain wasn't strong enough to do that. But in mysterious acts, I can be perfect at least.

He stood to his feet offering me his hand for assistance to lift me up. Just as I stood up, I realized he was a foot taller than me. I could clearly feel the carbon-dioxide coming out of his nostrils.

As we walked together to attend the next class, something unusual came upon me and I started to admire his nice look. His brown skin and brown eye balls. The manner at which his cheeks dimpled in whenever he smiles. The way he talks, one after the other as if he was counting it or reading it from different sheets of paper. Sometimes as if he's being forced to speak.

Gabriel! Gabriel! My heart was calling, one that was snuffed out the moment he spoke to me. His voice higher pitched, his hair lighter and he was paddled with a few more pounds. But what dragged me stumbling out of my imagination and into the real world of reality was his physicality, the solidity of his body, the unmistakable male resonance of his voice.

"Where will you be tonight?" he asked after the lectures.

"Of course at home or do you have somewhere to take me to?" I teased.

"Yeah if you are interested" he answered sharply.

"Never mind I was only joking, I don't go out at nights" I said.

"That's pretty cool" he confirmed.

Over the course of the semester, Gabriel started to grow in me. He was different from most other guys I have met before in a way that I could not quite place. He began by asking me questions about myself, kind of offhandedly, like he was interested in me. I still didn't know exactly how to act around him. It was a dance I had not learnt the steps.

One day Gabriel sat next to me during lectures, something he had not done before. I glanced at him to say good morning and he greeted me with dialogue.

"Can you do me a favor today?" he said blinking his eyes.

"Yes, if it's what I can do" I replied.

"I will like you to meet me at Laruba's restaurant this evening". The best restaurant in town. Of course I will love to but I pretended not to be interested at first. But inwardly, I was very interested. By the way, only ladies would understand.

"I don't think I can make it" I replied, squeezing my face.

"Oh please. I will really love you to be there, please do it for me" he pleaded.

"Alright I will see what I can do about it" I said hopelessly as if I was contemplating whether or not.

"Please do something about it and please it should be something positive for me".

The late afternoon shadows had started to lengthen on the ground when I walked into the restaurant. I looked round and saw him waving at me.

"Woooow he's cute" I muttered quietly. He must have had many admirers that day, I've never seen him dressed as such before. He was dressed on a pink-strive ironed collared shirt, his dark-washed jeans and a white cap. On his foot was a pair of white sneakers to match with the cap. "He's cute" I kept saying nonstop in my mind. I wanted to say he look nice but I knew it's going to sound flirtatious, so I swallowed it.

"You must have taken a very big risk to escape from the heaven's gate" he teased as he stood staring at me.

"Hmmmn and you too" I pounded back.

"Whoever said that the beautiful ones are yet to be born should have a rethink' it took him almost half a minute to say this.

"Hmmmmmn, don't exaggerate of me please' I replied almost shyly.

"Hope I won't get into trouble. God might send down His angels to spy your moments" he continued.

"And to say the truth you would be roughly handled if I am found in your custody because God doesn't joke with me" I replied joking as we both busted out in laughter.

I was comfortable around him. That was the first time I felt comfortable around a man after my rape experience. I could have talked for hours more without my knowledge. My shyness and fear of spending my time in the company of a man evaporated into the fog of the night. Gabriel was not just a man I had met but a man I was destined to meet. Being with him that evening also made me felt like there was a whole world that I had been isolated from.

"So what do you do on weekends?" he asked me when my mouth was full and I knew he had made the timing before throwing the question.

I allowed the piece of meat in my mouth to gulp down before I replied. "Busy with my assignment and house chores".

"Oh that's cool" he said abruptly. "But can you still do me a favor by lending me few hours out of your time? I promise to pay you back by doing two of your assignments"

"Not again. Giving you my time today doesn't mean am all day free and you know that"

"I know that but please just do it for the last time. I just love your company that's all" he whispered softly.

"Me too. But not this weekend maybe some other time".

It took us about a month before we got it altogether. After classes ended on Fridays afternoon, Gabriel and I made an appointment where we hanged out with each other. On several occasions we were together which he would whisper to my ears "I love you" and I will look at him and give him a light slap. To me, well, anyway, at that time, I only loved him for loving me and also admired his handsomeness and appreciated his intelligence. But by the end of the semester I officially fell in love with him truly with the whole of my heart.

Long before the second semester break, the first semester results were pasted which I performed beyond my expectations. But I had a blemish in one course. Prof. Tundu, my admirer showed no mercy on me. He had my result painted with a Carry Over (C.O) which everyone knew it was deliberately given to me.

"Has he asked you out before?" Gabriel asked me.

"Yes but I refused" I said.

"No wonder. The story about him is true, but don't worry I know you passed his course" he confided in me.

During the vacation, Gabriel was all I thought of every single moment of my day. He's my first thought in the morning and last at night. For a second he had got no chance to escape my mind. He always called me at the appropriate time when I desperately needed to hear his voice. He cheered me up with corny jokes and complements. He told me I was amazingly amazing. Oh I love this guy. I had painted the image of Gabriel on my head.

The vacation seemed to be too lengthy for me but finally I went back to school and started all over again. Time without number I have been to his house, lay on his mattress having my hands and my head on his chest. Nothing happened. He was indeed different from other men.

We have had two cups of ice cream each and we were about leaving the spot to my house one evening when I suddenly turned to him "I will spend the night in your house" I said looking into his eyes.

"Really? That would be nice" he replied smiling.

Inside his room I sat seductively on his mattress horny and wanted him to have me touched. I sat watching him have his shirt off gently, his fresh skin seducing me. The muscles of his shoulders, biceps, and forearms were so tempting to be touched.

"What do you love about me?" I asked timidly as he flipped himself beside me.

"Everything of course" he said

"I mean my body"

"Hmmmmn" he chuckled and started staring at me from head to toe. "Your lips" he began, moving his eyes downward "Your thighs"

"What else?"

"Your waist, your eyes, your fingers, in fact everything" he submitted.

"Come here" I said as I wiggled myself onto the bed in my sheath dress as if I were a mermaid with a lace-and-sequins tail. He sat down on the bed and lowered over me. With one kiss, I submitted myself to him. My breath caught and my nervous energy flooded me. My fingers ran over him. My hand trailing down his chest, his ribs, his waist, his hips, grabbing hold of him and pulling him closer. Our body became warm, the warmth turned to heat, and the mutual comfort turned to desire. His wet body pressed me up slowly, his calloused rocker fingers tenderly followed by the natural trail of water from his hair to neck, to waist and below. With my legs hanging on the air, spreading apart "Yes" I took it all in, took him all in until my nerves, my knees, melted like the water around us and I could stand no more. The message is clear.

We finally satiated months of attraction and weeks of tension. Skin to skin, lips to skin, teeth to skin, we melded together with fierceness and urgency found only in the most intense place in the world.

"I love you but we shouldn't have done this" he said apologetically, his voice trailed as he pulled me in for a deeper kiss and more.

We became madly in love with each other, he always hanged me around him like a handbag. He was a very good artist. On both sides of his room hung a paint of me, one at the exit wall of the door and the other opposite it on the other side of the room. My pictures serves as the welcoming image into his room and also as a farewell image to his room. So was the extent of his love for me.

Prof. Tundu was involved in a fatal accident that almost claimed his life few weeks after. He was lucky to have survived, but his vehicle was a total scrap and wreckage. But yet he never had his eyes off my buttocks.

One day, I stood in front of my mirror to have a look at myself. Then I realized that I was actually a threat to men. The manner at which some guys walked in confusion or gulps in their saliva whenever they had me sighted rendered me nothing but a total wonder. Indeed the curve shape of my hips, my upright standing point-to-kill breasts and my buttocks would have been a threat to me as well if I were a boy. They were always in admiration and wished they could have me bedded or have a taste of me.

No wonder Prof. Tundu had never for a day left his eyes off my buttocks and never had his eyes left off my breasts even after he was engaged in a fatal accident.

For the rest of the year I couldn't help but grin widely every time I saw Gabriel on my bed. But something happened before the end of the semester examination. I was betrayed by Gabriel, the man I loved and cherished so much. It happened on a Thursday afternoon after the day's paper. Gabriel left the hall without waiting for me for the first time since we started dating. When I called to confirm the reasons behind his actions, behold it was a lady that picked up his phone.

"He's in the bathroom" the lady said and hung up the call on me. At once my eyes became watery with tears. Not to over react, I pulled myself together and head straight to my dorm waiting for his call. Little do I know that waiting for his call was like waiting for the second coming of Christ, no year, no month, no date, no time, no hour, no minute, no second.

Later that evening, I saw Gabriel with a very pretty lady hanging around him. He walked passed me, smiling at me without saying a word. Instantly I felt a burning inside of me, I wish I could wake up from the nightmare. Where I was at that moment I don't know. "Gabriel with a girl?" I struggled to say. "Am dead! I have been used".

I felt betrayed, disappointed and cheated. I had his number deleted off my phone immediately, I cried all night. I hoped that he suddenly or miraculously become the man that I do create in my heart. But he never did.

I saw him at every corner with the lady, walking around, entering places we do enter. For about a week I cried ceaselessly all night. I gave up on him for his failure to say a word to me the day we wrote the final paper of that semester. If he had known how mysterious I was, I bet he wouldn't have made such trick with me. A man that I wholeheartedly submitted my body to, resisting all opposing men.

A day before I left for home I cursed him never to return in peace. "He shall know no peace. His family will benefit nothing from him. He will die mysteriously for taking advantage of me" I cursed unconsciously.

The whole of the vacation was a total mess for me. I was having my tooth brushed when his call came through one morning. Without a second look I bounced the call. He afterwards called severally and almost had my battery drained. Finally I picked his call

"What is it? Why are you disturbing my life after you have taken advantage of me" I yelled. To my greatest surprise he was just laughing.

"Calm down young lady, let me explain" he said, his mouth still folded with laughter. I got annoyed and hanged up the call. He called ceaselessly but I further not gave his calls a response.

I resumed earlier the following semester. A week after my resumption, I saw his call on my phone but as usual I bounced it. He later sent me a text saying he's on his way back to the school and would explain everything to me when he arrives. Hours later, I entered the school for lectures to find all my course mates murmuring in sober.

"What's the matter?" I asked innocently.

All eyes were on me and I felt a little uneasy and embarrassed. Was my question wrong? Their faces were all having hiding secrets.

"Gabriel your boyfriend was involved in a ghastly motor accident about half an hour ago" our course rep said.

"Gabriel my boyfriend?" I stammered. At once my love for him revived, I carelessly had my bag and shoes flung. I ran towards his dorm, my course mates following me with a chase. I fell down and rolled unconsciously on the ground.

"Is he dead?" I asked, my head swollen "Where is he? Please I want to see him, I want to touch him, I want to have a word with him. Can someone please take me to him?" My mates were all just standing like statues, their hands innocently folded on their chests.

Two weeks later, Gabriel was buried in a Christian cemetery in his home town. I was there to grace his burial along with seventeen of my course mates.

"He was your new boyfriend" it wasn't a question, I said as I walked along with the lady I lastly saw him with. "He was a man every woman would desire to be with and pray not to lose. He was very caring, kind hearted, fun and gentle. I enjoyed every second I spent around him and his memory will forever remain in my heart".

The lady gave me a dry smile and sighed "He wasn't my boyfriend. As you can see I was out there when all family members were summoned out. He was the best brother in the whole world. I'm his immediate younger sister". The lady explained.

"Immediate what? You mean Gabriel was your brother?" I exclaimed in a mute position.

"I was part of what he did to you in school. It was a test, he did that just to put your love for him into test. He wanted to know how jealous you were for him. I warned him at first but he wouldn't listen. Now death had gave him no chance to explain himself"

The words echoed in my ears like a movie sound in season of danger. I lost my memory of where I was. I burst into loud tears and ran back to his grave shouting "I love you! I love you! I love you! Come back to me. Am here for you" I rolled heavily in his grave, tossing my legs helplessly. I sat on his grave and clutched to my wish of not to be taken off. It was all my fault, I never told Gabriel how mysterious I was for the fear of being avoided by him. I thought if I had told him he wouldn't have attempted such trick on me.

His dad, mum alongside other family members and sympathizers pleaded with me but I heard no one. On top of my voice I weep until I had no more power to weep, I exhausted all my powers weeping.

Like a flash I saw someone like him approaching me and I fainted. The buckets of water poured on me for revival was useless, weak and insufficient. It took about an hour before I regained back consciousness. I have misjudged, of course I knew my words were responsible for his death. I will forever miss my love, fine boy, young blood.

But nevertheless, during the period of my unconsciousness I could remember I found myself sitting at a river bank weeping helplessly

"You really loved him" said a voice from behind. When I turned to see the speaker, I was shocked. It was the same woman I saw losing my hair back then in high school. The woman I was seeing inside my mum's water pot, the woman at the primary school water bank. She sat beside me.

"I loved him" I cried.

"I can see that you are really hurt. But he died because I never wanted to see you hurt by him anymore" said the woman "But to redeem back your happiness I can do one thing for you"

"And what is that?" I asked eagerly.

"I can have his soul captured back for you but as for his flesh" she shook her head luxuriously "I can't redeem it back as it is. Unless his soul would be transferred into another body and be rebirth or reincarnated"

I had no idea of what the woman was saying. "I want him back! I want him back as quick as possible" I cried as I lay my head on her shoulder. I remember I fell on her laps and she weaved my hair.

Was I evil? Can you remember how many lives had been lost for my sake? My first boyfriend, the boy in search of cane, the motorcyclist and now my second boyfriend. What do you think? Do you think I am happy and responsible for their deaths? Do you think I love and see what was happening to me as fun? Of course I disliked it all. I desired to be real just like every other person on the planet of earth.

I came back to begin the semester crying on the floor of my boyfriend. My eyes were bloodshot when my friends poked their heads into the room to console me. I felt like a murderer inwardly.

At the cause of my cry, I flashed back to the picture I once saw in my dad's briefcase. Who was that woman in the picture? And why was my dad hiding it from me? Oh my dad must know about everything that is happening to me. He knows who I was and how mysterious I was. If the woman in the picture was a natural being then why was my dad hiding the secret? Right then I knew there was something very significant and fetish about the picture. This I indeed needed to find out.

The first time I saw Gabriel again was in my dream. He was at the head of the steps and I was holding his arm, playing and talking kindly to him. He cheered me up with his corny jokes and complements as he use to do when he was alive. I laughed endlessly, jumping around him, falling on his body and blowing him deep kisses. Just before I woke up, I remembered when he was about leaving, walking to the exit of the dark hall we were, I held him back tightly and began to speak gently to him, urging him to the bed, telling him calmly that I did believe in him, that he must come back to spend time with me once more. It was a dreamland that I never wished to leave.

Of course I did not escape Gabriel for a moment neither do I escape his thoughts. At first I thought the dream was nothing than out of those mad thoughts, mad impulses so I started working on how to get rid of them despite myself.

How I started seeing Gabriel in a physical form began in a dream. I could still remember the first night I physically saw him as if it were like yesterday. He was sitting in my room, on my chair, backward to my table. We were having funny chats as usual. The last statement of his I could recall was

"Do you want to see me in a physical realm?" I nodded happily in satisfaction.

Just then I woke up to see him seated exactly where and how he was sitting in the dream, no change, no movement, with the same suit he was buried with. He sat staring at me continuously. I wiped my face with my palm the first time and mute was he sitting. I wiped my face again for the second time, he must have realized that I might scream aloud. When next I got my hands off my face I saw him no more. Oh! Useless imagination. How could I have thought of him that much?

He gradually began appearing to me physically like a wild wind in such a way that wouldn't scare me off. Sometimes on the road or in the class, he would walk pass me almost having his shoulder brushing mine. Or he would walk into the class and quietly he would fade away with the wind. I thought have started developing some mental issues, a love madness for the dead. Let me move on with my life jareee, nothing dey happen.

I was alone in my room one night when I heard a sound on my bed like someone trying to lay beside me.

"If I am to come back to you, will you accept me?" Gabriel voice sounded in my left ear.

With my eyes widened in shock, I looked beside me and found nothing.

"Are you afraid of me now?" his voice said again.

This was out of imagination. I disobeyed the law of gravity by standing on my feet.

"Where are you Gabriel? Show yourself, I've missed you. I want you back" I trembled.

From his voice as I do know him, I could tell that he sighed then spoke again. "If you have me seen wouldn't you bolt away? I'm no longer a mortal being with human flesh as you are. I am dead but my spirit can't depart from you, we have been bond together in the spirit realm"

"I have missed you Gabriel. Show yourself I want to see you". Just then there was a wind from the north inside my room. My windows and doors curtains began swinging heavily, light objects flying in the air. And right in front of me, he was standing.

"Oh my God, Gabriel! Gabriel!" I exclaimed as I rushed to hug him.

Voooom! I hugged the air. My body penetrated his body without any obstruction. My face was tensed with a mixture of range and amazement. I turned to look at him. Right in the same position he was still standing. He sighed

"You are a brave girl indeed, a girl with lion heart, filled with courage" he said.

I was still maintaining my position. Then he laughed heavily and disappeared to appear in another spot, I ran after him. And like kids we ran round my room and got everything scattered.

We were lost in play when suddenly a knock on my door shortened our time together.

"What are you doing? Why is your room scattered? Do you bring kids in here?" my new friend Bunmi asked hurriedly.

"I want to rearrange the room that's why" I lied.

"Then must you have everything scattered first before getting them rearranged?" Bunmi persisted.

"What about the assignment?" I cut her short to get rid of her endless questions.

"That's why I'm here"

"OK let's have it done altogether" I said ushering her a seat.

Ever since then Gabriel and I played almost every night, having my pillows flung at each other. And sometimes we do make what I would call love. Yes we do make love. Real love in spite of him belonging to the other world.

Not quite long, my friends and neighbors began to put me in suspense. I became suspicious to everyone. Of course I should be. The manner at which I talked to myself and played, laughing out loud, throwing my pillows around the room was more than enough to be suspected. I enjoyed playing with Gabriel all day even if I would have to miss lectures. But of course he wouldn't let me do that. He always have himself seated next to me in the class, solved my assignments at home and reveal my tests or examination questions to me. I became addicted to him. I had all men having their eyes fixed on my ass and breasts chased away. With time many started suspecting me to be a lesbian or an occult.

Indeed Gabriel spirit had been captured. Captured for me if you could remember. Gabriel almost got me exposed in the midst of my friends one day in my dorm. We're playing as usual when my friends poked in. The date of our Term Paper presentation was fast approaching, yet we had done nothing. I and my friends must have been lucky to be grouped together.

As they walked in, the chair on which Gabriel was sitting was held by one of them. The chair became heavy beyond its usual weight.

"Can't you wait for me to stand up first? You this good for nothing girl" Gabriel murmured.

He knew every single person in that room but no one could hear him except me.

"Shut up" I said sharply, with a very low voice.

"What do you mean by I should shut up" Bunmi dazed, a little puzzled.

"Never mind, I was in a deep thought" I fibbed.

"You dare asked me to shut up?" Gabriel complained.

"I said you should shut up" I whispered, a little louder. My friends all gazed at me.

"Itunu are you OK at all" one of them muttered.

"Oh sorry am good. I wasn't actually talking to you" I composed myself.

"Oh my God Itunu had killed me, respect has been taken away from her" Gabriel was saying scratching his dark soft hair as he stood to take another position.

I sat quietly without replying him. Of course I killed him, but does he really know that? I don't think so. Or has he discovered who I am? From his actions, the answer should be "No". I thought the woman who had his soul captured and sent to me had erased such memory from his head.

The chair became lighter as it regained its normal weight and my friend reposition it to sit.

"Disrespectful child" Gabriel added frowning around the innocent lady as she seats.

During the cause of the assignment, Gabriel interrupted severally claiming to have me corrected. "No! No! No!" he will say whenever I made a mistake and he would tell me how to do it. My friends always wondered how intelligent I was to have any problem well solved offhandedly.

"You must be a genius" they always say.

Towards the end of the assignment, Gabriel started acting strange, cracking some funny jokes to have my attention drawn. Sometimes I smile and sometimes laughed and my friends would wonder what was funny. Just as I was smiling Gabriel attempted to remind me of a joke he once told me before his death. This, I knew would leave an uncontrollable laughter in my mouth so I acted quickly to stop him.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" I yelled turning to his direction.

"There is no one sitting there so who are you talking to" Bunmi asked.

I was almost caught that day. I lacked what to give as a reply. "I'm a little tipsy' I whispered inside Bunmi's ears, but I wasn't sure if they bought the idea or not.